Ephesians 3:13-21

How does anyone summarize the super-spectacular? Paul outlines the unquantifiable and corporate aspects of the gift of God’s grace announced so astoundingly in the gospel. He writes of and to a remarkable family that fulfills a remarkable purpose of eternal significance and he intimates also the location of the divine power that administers the manifold wisdom of God in the manifestation of the unsearchable riches of Christ in our approach to the Lord and our infinitely deep established companionship with him. Paul writes triumphantly to the people of God who by grace know him as Father. This is not a relationship of nature but of divine adoption and all the adopted ones are encouraged, through the Lord’s prayer, to call upon God as “our Father”. The Lord’s prayer is “the family prayer”, a way of access for the sons and daughters of the covenant. In him, Jesus our Lord, “we may approach God with freedom and confidence”.
     Every believer is included within the church. We are to live, worship and extol Christ “together with all the saints”. We have, and should have, our personal relationship with Christ, but we identify and witness with with “the church” and we need to attain the healthy balance between the individual attachment to Christ, real and precious as it is, and our corporate connection with him through which the purpose of God in the world, and the shaming of the alien powers in opposition to the Lord, is effectually realized. Our modern emphasis on individualism [my way, my interests, my rights and importance] is bad ecclesiology [theology of the church]. God’s resources, his glorious riches, are provided in the family, of which many contemporary believers are deprived. Paul’s address certainly has relevance to the individual, but here Paul is speaking principally of the divine endowments bestowed upon the company and communion of God’s chosen ones. We are all obligated and indebted to the welfare of the family and to be complicit, co-operative, contributive towards its endeavors. This connection is not an extra to our Christian life but the summit of our fellowship in Christ. It is the body that serves him; not disconnected, isolated members who stand aloof. There are divine blessings especially reserved for the communion of saints, and special callings to function within that community of believers. We are to widen our concern way beyond ourselves. There are opportunities and restraints to exercise among the people of God - its assembly or congregation and expanded outreach. Like Paul, our preferred posture is to kneel before the Father as the Lord’s little ones - the least of all God’s people.
     Paul’s prayer on behalf of the church is replete with superlatives in relation to the glorious riches that God may lavish upon his dear ones united in him. The dimensions of grace are immeasurable and the direction of grace is emphatically and specifically internal. God’s supreme work on behalf of humankind is, as one person has opined, “an inside job”: To “strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” God’s aim is to penetrate to the inmost point of our personality; the exact, absolute center of our ourselves which even we cannot locate or comprehend. The crypt, or most hidden secret place as the New Testament Greek tells us [ Luke 11:33 - “a place where it will be hidden”]. The ultimate reality in Christian experience is Christ taking up residence in our hearts. Anything less than this, i.e. ritual, worship, action, profession, proclamation is futile. True Christianity is the life of God in the soul of man [Henry Scougal]. 
     The power of the Spirit is to indwell the people of God in unison as one entity and operate through it by common faith. Rooted and established in the shared love of God believers are enabled to grasp the every-direction infinitude of the love of the Lord Jesus, as to how limitlessly high, deep, wide and long the love of Christ is, and as much as it is known in sublimest bliss it far surpasses exhaustive knowledge, so much so that the people of God might search its endlessness and only begin to be filled to capacity with all the measure of all the fullness of God that is ever increasing, yet set firmly set in the inner life of the redeemed. We come to know the immeasurable goodness of God through its efficacious donation in our past, its dominion over our lives in the present, and our prospective enjoyment of it in the world without end.
     To be filled with the fullness of God is full of development for us as the favored children of the Father, the brethren of Christ, and those in constant fellowship with the Spirit. The excellence of Christ exceeds our holiest and strongest desires and outweighs our most cherished expectations.
     Paul’s assurance is truth and promise in its most extravagantly actual form and expression: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine - the phenomenal features of divine deeds, wonders beyond compare, and the extraordinary future of the whole church in the kingdom of God are incredible to our minuscule minds. Why should our confidence in the Lord wane and our petitions before him falter? According to his power - God is omnipotent and his strength irresistible. How can we question his ability? - that is at work within us - from regeneration, to the struggle of our competing natures, old and new, to those things we venture unselfishly to his glory. Why should we tire and lose heart? His glory, distinct from worldly glory, will be shown in the changing fortunes of the church in the history of the church in every generation. And the story told of Christ’s salvation, power, protection and victory in the church will resound through all eternity. 

THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, 2023
The Collect and Lectionary
Guard your Church, O Lord, with your perpetual mercy; and because in our frailty we cannot stand without your support, keep us always from all that may harm us; and lead us to all that is profitable for our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The O.T. Lesson: Joshua 24:14-25. Psalm 92:1-6. The Epistle: Galatians 6:11-18. The Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34.

Joshua
Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods of your forefathers, worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day who you will serve, whether the gods of your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Then the people answered, ”Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from the land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.

Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”

But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”

Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”

“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.” On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he drew up for them decrees and laws.

​
Matthew 6:24, 33
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.”


WHO WILL YOU SERVE?
Both Joshua and Yeshua [Jesus] pose this question to us, and it is the most important question of greatest consequence ever to be addressed to us - each one of us without exception. The rousing provocation is to seriously consider our foremost yielding and loyalty in life - God or a substitute allegiance. For the Israelites the alternative put to them was “other gods”. For those encountering the claims of Jesus Christ the option of serving Mammon [money and all the benefits it is perceived to provide materially and socially].

In our sincere preference for God competing allurements have to be overcome that have a great appeal for our fallen and sinful nature. Israel’s vow in its first iteration was glib and hypocritical. Joshua knew the hearts of his people well: “You are not able to serve the Lord.”

Their perverse proclivities were predictable to Joshua’s sharp spiritual insight. Attraction to foreign gods was already among them and their brash profession of loyalty to Israel’s Savior, spoken in fake recitation of God’s goodness toward them was a witness to hearts that were already false. Joshua was intimately familiar with these unreliable [rebellious] folk. Genuine followers were among them, undoubtedly. But rarely are large crowds completely converted and conscious of spiritual reality. Sometimes the divine verdict upon the people of God has to be expressed in terms like these: “What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears [Hosea 6:4]. Approaches and responses to the Lord can be uniformly vocal but so apathetic. Our God deserves our full devotion but that will never occur until we crossover into his kingdom of perfection. Israel’s incapacity is ours also. Only divine enabling can cause us to comply with the Lord’s beneficial commands. Our idolatries, wickedness and weaknesses need to be conquered by his expulsive power and he must reign in our subdued hearts.

There is only one true and deserving Master but our loyalties remain divided through our indwelling sin. The conflict is ongoing [Romans 7:7ff, Galatians 5: 16-18]. The preaching of perfectionism in Christian experience is an injurious phenomenon to tortured souls and conflicted consciences. The desire of the true believer is to please one Master only and totally, and that is the leaning of the heart born from above. In the choice that we have between God and our selfish heart, enslaved to Satan, is as clear as love to the Lord and loathing of the devil. God is pure excellence and Satan is entirely obnoxious. The Triune God attracts our love, honor and affectionate admiration. The evil one is justly despised and we constantly petition God for protection from him. Satan’s kingdom is murky, dark, cruel and full of hate, deceit and violence. It ranges across the entirety of mankind and oppresses and depresses the soul of humanity, inflicting injury and injustices everywhere. Yet fallen man is still charmed by its enticements and transient pleasures. Our interior darkness and irresistible lusts keep us captive to its magical mastery of our depraved imaginations and consequent unbearable miseries. Satan, our foul and tyrannical artisan of our bondage, causes us to bludgeon, flog and beat up ourselves. Sinners are inwardly unhappy and distracted souls careering from one personal catastrophe to another, as our celebrity classes frequently illustrate, for they have the freedom and finances to live to self-gratifying excess - the natural way of all flesh.

For the regenerate folk of God, the righteousness of God is their pursuit and delight - his holy character and ways of truth and wisdom issuing in goodness, reliability and love towards his redeemed evermore. What deprivation the choice of the wrong master brings. What irksome and painful service we render to the evil one. What dire rewards we are given by him in his miserly, menacing and mean ways. The result of his control is unimaginably horrific and destructive in terms of eternity. But how safe, blessed, blissful, sublime and serene is the outcome of serving and living with God, because God in himself is the source and sum of all goodness, and in knowing him we receive and possess the gracious donation of himself and all that he is. Who will you serve?

1 Corinthians 5:1-5, 2 Corinthians 1:23 - 2:11

Collect for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
Almighty and everlasting God, grant that by your help we grow in faith, hope and love; and, so that we may obtain what you promise, make us also to love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm. vv23-24

Paul elucidates a key principle of ministry: A return to Corinth would have warranted severe disciplinary language from the apostle. The reaction may have been too disastrous. Those entrusted with authority in the Church of God do not revel in presiding over issues of strife within its borders. Paul thought it best to spare the rod. Harsh words would exacerbate the situation in the Corinthian church and arouse his enemies there to a pitch of denunciation and division, and turmoil would have been the result. Turmoil gives rise to loose talk and painful exchanges of anger.

However, there was no diminution in Paul’s pastoral love for those ever-difficult people. He sets the example for ministers of the gospel. He has no intention to lord it over the people of God and score points. Sometimes it is “hands off and prayer on”, and reliant patience invested in the work of the Spirit. Dependence upon the Holy Spirit is the essential basis of all ministry and church order. This is true and sound “charismaticism”. The true objective is collaborative joy and this is fostered by amiable cultivation of personal faith without intense directive intrusion into personal lives. Pressurized pastoral control and interference can stifle the Holy Spirit’s individual nurturing and development. Faith cannot be forced or imposed and folk need room to grow beneficially and not through bluster. “So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you. For if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you whom I have grieved? I wrote as I did so that when I came I should not be distressed by those who ought to make me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy. For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you. [2:1-4]. The maxim is love exuding joy in the life of the people of God. Leadership [a dubious word in Christian circles] is not lordship or gratification of ambition and power, but lowly restraint of any tendency to assert oneself over others with a heavy hand.

If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us, for we are not unaware of his schemes. [2-11].

The implication is that someone in the Christian community at Corinth has committed an offense that somehow has a bearing upon Paul, but it also affects the rest of the fellowship. The majority of the membership arrived at a measure of punishment that seems to have brought about a mood of repentance in the spirit of the offender. Paul is satisfied with the outcome and concurs with the forgiveness extended to the penitent who is markedly contrite for the wrong he has done. But he may be in danger of being consumed with guilt as he reflects upon the seriousness of his error and lapse into despair. Paul counsels that this possibility must not happen. Christian discipline is motivated by remedial concern. Recovery of the sinner and restoration of fellowship is the aim of any punishment that has been justly meted out. Discipline is not colored by spite but spiritual concern for the wellbeing of a brother or sister in Christ. It is to be corrective and healing and not permanently harmful and constantly recalled to embarrassing attention.

Paul’s attitude to the offender is remarkably compassionate: Forgiveness and comfort is to be poured into his desolate and ashamed soul. He must not be permitted to fade away into isolation, desolation and neglect. Strongly reaffirm him as a loved one. Moral irregularity of any kind will not be foreign to any gathering or group of professed believers. It does not present occasion for lordly disdain and hasty bitterness but protection and care for the purity of the congregation in the face of evil and the fear of contagion and confusion of conscience. Cleansing and reconciliation are the desires accompanying chastisement. For those who administer the unhappy duty of discipline there is an interior trembling at the sinful proclivities that inhabit us all, that might just surface, but for the grace of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Elders are not headhunters, but rather spiritual surgeons of practical and godly necessity. The wisdom and discernment of the Spirit must prevail in every circumstance of ordering the life of the Christian family.

Paul reminds us that our relationships with each other are in the sight of Christ, and so, too, are our estimations of each other. Are they as fair and charitable as they ought to be? Are inclinations as supportive as they need to be in the vicissitudes of life [BCP, “changes and chances”]. Our openness and candor before the Lord Jesus Christ is preventive of Satan outwitting us by his mischievous and malicious schemes, especially through our unchecked impulses to settle a matter. The enemy is always hovering  and hoping to twist and tweak matters to his evil advantage among the Lord’s people and that is why our Litany seeks from God our protection and deliverance from him so emphatically:

    Spare us, good Lord, from all evil and mischief; from sin, from the crafts and assaults of the devil; from thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation.
    Good Lord, deliver us from fornication, and all other deadly sin; and from all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
    We beseech thee...  finally to beat down Satan under our feet.

Satanic schemes are aways lurking near us, rancor is always brewing, and we are not to live in naive unawareness. Preserving moral order and decency of behavior is a duty for overseers in the church, but it does not depend fundamentally on human acumen or ethical propriety. These will play a part. However, procedural method, verdict and ultimate action will be referred to the motion of the Holy Spirit sought in prayer as the sovereign influence of the Spirit in the minds of the parish representatives and his indication of the effect of discipline upon the person responsible for the presence of grief. There can be a tendency to condemn from a perspective of moral superiority and a self-righteous disgust.

Just as we see how Paul deals with an immoral brother [1 Cor 5] whose callous conscience and stubbornness in evil warrants expulsion from the fellowship, so the conditions of such a decision is delineated in his rebuke to the reckless Corinthians who tolerate [from a desire to be deemed charitably broadminded] such a scandalous example of serious immorality among their company and wantonly fail to evict him from the circle of believers, besmirching the reputation of Christ, and polluting the life of the congregation, endangering its holiness of life and preference of custom before men. This is a situation where any element of human meanness or vengefulness should not occur. It is a solemn scenario of sanctified purgation and concern for the ultimate salvation of the offender through handing “this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” This is the resort to tough mercy and drastic transformation, and a Spirit inspired bid for deliverance.

The eldership is to convene deliberately and explicitly “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The power of the Lord Jesus is to be present and appealed to, and the man is to be handed over in this way to an expulsion exercised it would seem by the Spirit of Christ, not a committee of vengeful human beings, but those exhibiting, in concert with the congregation the righteous character of Christ for the purity of his bride. [e.g. the majority of family members, says Paul, agree with the punishment cf 2 Cor 2:6] There is to be no salivating at the slaughter, [the prospect of discipline does seem to excite certain types of personality who exist emotionally from drama to drama in church affairs] but the sternest expression of love for the sinner in dire peril. Christ is there, [do we realize?] observing everything. But David Broughton Knox offers a further observations that clear away the possibility of unkind, biased and sharp tempers given free rein in confidential proceedings.

First DBK observes that the congregation is to exercise discipline by corporate prayer. The instruments of banishment are word, prayer and the Spirit. Paul envisages the people gathered and carefully prepared together as a church, humbly to make the correct decision, God being present with them in spirit, and their Lord Jesus being present in his power. It is Christ who takes the sinner out of the congregation, Knox affirms. God takes away [the verb is passive in 1 Cor:5v2]. Reliance is placed squarely upon him as is directed in the original language i.e. that he who has done this deed might be taken away from you.

Knox observes that modern Christians misunderstand the situation by thinking of it in terms of formal excommunication, “as though Paul were writing for an ecclesiastical situation centuries later… The congregation is Christ’s congregation. He is its Lord, that is, its judge”, and there is a strong leaning upon the work of the Spirit in the action of the church, and possibly in the mind of the recalcitrant sinner, who may be led to conclude that he does not fit into the fellowship he has so woundingly grieved and so he leaves. “The final step is to withdraw personal fellowship from church members who continue to act sinfully after admonition [Titus 3:10, 2 Thessalonians 3:6], having first talked the matter out with the whole congregation [Matthew 18:17]. Each Christian is to withdraw his personal fellowship from those who name the name of Christ, but who will not reform their lives. He is not even to invite such to a meal [1 Corinthians 5:11]. Secular relationships may continue but no personal fellowship is to be extended to them.”

In the stepping aside from the notion of an “ecclesiastical declaration” to the mournful mind of the congregation which is conditioned by the word, prayer, and influence of the Spirit, the dynamic is altered to a tenor of godly family concern for the integrity of the fellowship and the chastening of an errant member toward the outcome, under God, that he may gain and be confident of his sure salvation. There is no spite involved but the pastoral operation of the Spirit who retrieves, we pray, the sinner from the sad lapse that imperils the soul. The tone of discipline must express components that are punitive and pastoral in necessary measure so that in the decision of the majority in may be said, “Christ has taken away the sinner out of the congregation”.

February 5th, 2023

Collect
Almighty and ever-living God, we humbly pray that, as your only Son was presented this day in the temple in our human nature and flesh, so may we be presented to you with pure and clean hearts by the same your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Presentation of the Word of God

Lessons From The Lectionary: 
The O.T. Lesson: Malachi 3:1-5
The Psalm: 48:1-7 
For the Epistle: Galatians 4: 1-7
 
Gospel: Luke 2:22-40
When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

The Thoughts Of Many Hearts Will Be Revealed

The Lord Jesus Christ is the searcher of human hearts; either by the truth spoken about him, or by his Spirit testing the content of the individual conscience concerning the deep-seated attitude towards him. Every person ever to have lived will rise or fall depending upon their estimation of Jesus - receptive or rejective. Messiah is the arbiter of our destiny according to the disposition of our heart towards him. He knows the tendency of our essential inner being. He probes to the inmost core and center of our secret self. Nothing can be concealed from his scrutiny. To him all hearts are open and from him nothing is hidden. Every secret impulse, all the emerging desires of our nature, are as plainly visible to him as objects revealed in the brightest light of the noonday sun.

This Lucan passage introduces us to the mystery of salvation (something we could never discover for ourselves, or ever be discerned by the keenest of human minds). We are now in the zone of the secret and sovereign activity of the Holy Spirit and his saving work of moving the soul toward God (drawing) and illuminating (teaching) his redemptive purpose [John 6:43-45]. It is the heart of man that is poignantly at the center of the historical presentation of Joseph and Mary’s son at the temple, and the dealing of the Spirit of God with the human heart. 

The sensitive account of Jesus being taken to the temple is an example of the obedient piety of his young parents. “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord.” With understanding and willingness Mary and Joseph wanted their infant son to be set apart for the service of the Lord. We cannot ever imagine that their vow of consecration was ever an empty formality, as it may have for some others. Their desire was compatible with the command of the Lord. They knew his birth was unique and they wanted God’s way for him. Humbly they devoutly offered the sacrifice of Israel’s poor, “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” It was a modest offering from two hugely grateful hearts. As members of the remnant folk of Judea, Jesus’ parents would raise him in a sincere knowledge of the Lord, for he had a divine assignment that was not yet fully known by them. The child was a donation from God and dedicated to him. 

A divinely arranged encounter between a senior member of the remnant [not necessarily aged] and Joseph and Mary occurred as they were making their way through the precincts of the temple. The Holy Spirit was on the move guiding the direction and hearts of three chosen persons toward a crucial meeting of enormous importance. The Lord had by his Spirit summoned the righteous and devout believer of the Messianic Promise, and [most likely] elderly saint called Simeon, to the temple to witness the advent of the One expected to come as the consolation of Israel, the embodiment of divine salvation.

Simeon had been granted the privilege of welcoming the Lord’s Christ about whom he had a greater understanding than the husband and wife standing before him. His salutation was affectionate and succinctly explanatory. In the acknowledgment of the Lord’s sovereignty he hailed the long-awaited Savior who would bring the knowledge of saving grace to the Gentile world and bring the vindication of Israel’s election and joy as God’s chosen people through whom God signalled and wrought the incarnation. That is a glorious role. In due time Israel will witness the glory of the God-Man who dwelt among the Jewish people in great humility.

Simeon’s glad pronouncement amazed the infant Redeemer’s parents and in the solemnity of the moment the patient believer of the ancient gospel confers a gracious blessing upon them. But his farewell words contain a somber prediction concerning the holy Babe. “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against …”

Jesus will arouse malicious and fierce opposition from cruel and wicked enemies. He will be falsely accused and slandered and hated by those who refuse to believe him. For those who come to trust him he will prepare their hearts to shun human pride and bring them to a humble state of mind. He will scatter those “who are proud in their inmost thoughts . . . but has lifted up the humble” (ch 1, Mary’s Song). “the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.” Approval or disapproval of the Lord Jesus is the dividing line between the saved and the lost. The Lord will read each heart justly and accurately.

“And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” The denunciation and death of the Lord Jesus, The Son of God, would sorely wound the heart of Mary. Her soul would be penetrated by the sharpest pang of agony and sorrow. We, too, marvel at what Simeon knew.

RJS

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT  2021
 
Collect
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the deeds of darkness and to put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son came to us in great humility; that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
 
This is the Word of the Lord
Romans 13 :10 - 13
Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
 

THE ADVENT ALARM

Understanding the present time: Life in the present is not an index of what is to continue or to come. Our current condition cannot be guaranteed to remain. Our state of mind or circumstance is fragile to the force of changeable and fluctuating fortune beyond our ability to determine or influence. Divine Providence reigns over time and motion, and the future is unpredictable; although man cannot resist the temptation to venture forecasts with certainty that is unwarranted. This is a daring beyond the lowly attitude of prayer and dependence upon the wisdom of the Divine.
 
Any present comfort, coziness, or composure is unreliable. Time moves swiftly and new events occur rapidly that can totally alter a situation with suddenness. A sense of repose can be seriously risky. There is a human tendency to rest and revel in the abeyance of alertness to instant emergency - a state of contentment unguarded against any kind of surprise or crisis. Snoozing can be a way of life. A slumbering present can inure us to incidents of shock that require immediate attention and preparation for decisive action.
 
The present time is not a permanent state of affairs but the threshold to successive developments, good and bad, and it is good to be on guard for whatever eventuates in order to take advantageous or defensive measures. Believers take cognizance of the pledges and warnings of God as to what the future will contain, without a revealed timetable of fulfillment. Readiness is to be their watchword. Every hour is to be the hour of expectation. We wake up quickly from lapses into slumber knowing that the promised Day of the Lord portends triumph for some and tragedy for others. It is imperative that we heed the Gospel that will divide the sheep from the goats. The last day approaches ineluctably. The hour has come for an encounter with reality.
 
The day is almost here: Heaven’s red-letter day is firmly fixed and established as to when it will appear. It must always be considered as imminent. “But the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Peter 3:10). It is designed to surprise, though much warning is delivered in good time for us to be on the alert. For Christians the undisclosed date of the Lord’s appearing is prospectively a cause of immense joy and eager anticipation.
 
Salvation is now nearer than when we first believed: Salvation is our immediate hope and inheritance the moment we believe. We possess it fully through the promise of God’s sure word. But entrance to everlasting life won for us by Jesus Christ is preceded by a travel through time until we connect with eternity. Our union with the Lord Jesus through saving faith affords the certainty that our unfailing Companion will lead us home as we follow in his steps, his hand holding ours. “God will show us the path of life; in his presence is the fullness of joy: and at his right hand there is pleasure for evermore” (Psalm 16:11).
 
Earth’s night of uncertainty, trial, temptation, sin, grief and doubt is almost over. The darkness need not enclose our lives any longer, nor influence our desires and deeds. The light of the Lord protects and guides us. His word, wisdom, and commands help us to choose our way carefully and to walk in safety. Paul adumbrates the sinful, careless, life driven by carnal urges in such distasteful terms that grieve us. But without grace none of us could avoid the most horrid tendencies of our fallen nature. We are always in need of exhortations to holiness, reminders of moral danger, and protection from entrapment. The certainty of the Day of The Lord enables us to press on in resolute righteousness. The enticements of a sinful world cannot dissuade us from the vision of our Saviour’s glorious Majesty. Indeed we delight to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ: his mind, his truth, his fellowship, his influence within, his shining purity, and tender conformity to the likeness and will of God. How rapturous is such closeness to him in repudiation of the wicked world that bequeaths us only shame, guilt, and separation from a gracious and good God, the only delight of a converted and regenerate heart.

Jesus, the Redeemer of the world, will come as stern judge of the whole earth, its total population throughout all time. None shall escape his universal scrutiny and just verdict. With fondness he will regard each one of his chosen people. He will bid them and bind them to himself. What inexhaustible bliss.
 
With justice he will banish all who refuse him and have desired never to know and trust him; those who fail to truly repent and sincerely believe his holy gospel.
The Advent Alarm gives shrill bidding to all to consider the summons of the gospel with grave good sense.
 
The present will pass. And so too the day of salvation.
 
“Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen” (1 Peter 3: 17-18).

RJS

TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY  2021
 
Collect
Lord God, our refuge and strength, and the author of all godliness: Be ready to hear the devout prayers of your Church, and grant that what we ask faithfully we may obtain effectually; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
From the Word of the Lord
The Epistle
Philippians 3:17 - 21
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
 
The Gospel
Matthew 22:15 - 22
Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are.  Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
 
Citizenship in Heaven and Earthly Things
 
The Christian life is two dimensional. We sojourn on Earth but our sight is on heaven. What binds these two aspects of our existence together is the sovereignty of Christ. Paul and Matthew merge in bringing these two themes together and they are to be entwined as we live out our allotted time in the world and anticipate everlasting life in the presence of God.
Christ is the content of both modes of life. He is our Lord in our day to day experience and our eternal expectation. As believers we know him to be the sum of our two-fold reality - the earthly phase and the heavenly eon. There is the sense in our dual-leveled place of abode, one temporary—this transient world, the other timeless—the world to come, that there is a variation in authority. Here, God rules through human appointment to various forms of civil authority. In eternity God will govern directly and immediately in his majestic supremacy, seen, surrounding and sensed. We glean an understanding of this supremacy, historical and heavenly, performed through the Lord Jesus, from evidence indicated in our two passages of Scripture.
 
Matthew raises the issue of the authority of Caesar representing the civil administration exerted over communities and countries. The dialogue recorded by the apostle rightly describes the function and rights of human administration – service to the citizenry and the collection of enabling taxation. But there also seems to be an implied irony as well. Jesus points out the power of the state and its possession of permission to raise tribute money: Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But strictly speaking the authority and levies gained by Caesar are God’s and Caesar is simply a trustee. Compared to the authority of the Lord Jesus, all human power is trifling. The wicked and conspiratorial band of Pharisees and Herodians had no concept of the Owner and Disposer of all things with whom they were deceitfully dealing.
 
Courteously, Jesus acknowledged Caesar and his borrowed greatness, but in reality and justice he could have laughed at his vaunted pre-eminence and consigned the portrait to scorn. In reality Caesar has nothing that is not God-given. Nonetheless civil government is an ordinance of God, and even citizens of heaven and the children of the King are to render proper submission and obedience in all matters moral and beneficial. Earthly order and peaceful society is a Christian priority. But, indeed, the believer is law abiding because it pleases his Lord to be such. Beyond the role of human authority to command, the people of God perceive duties to be fulfilled in obeisance to the divine will. To give to God what is God’s requires our all.
 
Paul in the entire spread of his teaching provides a pattern for the life of faith, namely, the thought that determines attitude and action. It is an internal template ingrafted upon the heart and not an external code dictating outward behavior. According to the apostle our minds must rise above exclusively earthly things, even those matters legitimate for this life. To the fore of our mental life, and its expression through the inclination of the affections, should be the glory of the cross. The stream of our understanding of God flows from the supreme revelation of his being and ways from the deep and wide contemplation of the cross of Christ in its intent, meaning and accomplishment. The cross is the cure of our maladies and the confirmation of our blessedness.
 
It confers upon us citizenship in heaven, and presents to us the Lord Jesus Christ as our heaven-sent Saviour. This humble, lowly, obedient Victim on our behalf is now exalted to the loftiest pinnacle of divine power and authority. He is seated upon the summit of absolute control over all things celestial and all things created – vast cosmos and speck-like planet of our habitation. Here, we await his second scheduled Advent from the Throne above in order to consummate the history of mankind, dissolve our orbiting sphere, and bring a new heaven and a new earth into one. The crowning message of the two apostles is the splendor of the lovely Lord Jesus in total command of absolutely everything, and the co-author with the Father and the Spirit of the utterly indescribably spectacular universal transformation.
 
RJS

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY after TRINITY 2021

​Collect
Lord God, keep your household the Church grounded in continual godliness, we humbly pray, so that by your protection it may be free from all adversities, and may devoutly serve you in good works to the glory of your name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Psalm for Anglicanism ? A Modern Musing.
Psalm 44 from the lectionary of the day.

1. We have heard with our ears O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago. Not all of us in our day are familiar with the saga of the reformed catholic Church of England. Many of us in the Anglican Communion are indifferent to our long term history, and there are many who wish to either ignore it or reverse it. The 16th century Ecclesia Anglicana moved with cautious heroism into the family of Reformed Churches, retaining loyalty to the ancient creeds, guarded respect for the church fathers, and everything from the past that could be deemed consonant with Holy Scripture. All preceding orthodoxy and its saintly exponents of earlier generations were deeply cherished and inclusive within our precious Christian heritage that respected the Bible as the Word of God. Our Reformers established a sound scriptural foundation for our faith in God, our obedience to his will, and the worship of his Name. Those days long ago need to be recaptured in our minds. The past needs to enter our present with renewed power.

2. With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish. Just as Israel had to establish a holy land so the pastors and scholars of the English Church had to embrace and advocate the holy truth of divine revelation. With fluctuating fortune, the providence of God, the men of the Reformation were greatly blessed, a renewed Church graced the land, and continual reform of the Church in line with Scripture was the aspiration. No wonder that the French author Victor Hugo could remark that, “the Bible made England!”

3. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. Human instrumentalities are always used in the advancement of Christ’s cause on earth, but the effectiveness is always the Lord’s. Divine power, his love, and his favor achieve good and godly ends.

4. You are my king and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. The beleaguered believer always reckons on the fact that the phases and developments of history are dispensed by the rule of God. History is the domain of his sovereign direction. So too, the Church knows that its weal and welfare is determined by God through the fluctuations between blessing and judgment - his presence or withdrawal.

5. Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. It is God alone who can fend off our opponents or repulse those who distort his truth or pollute his worship; those who oppress us with sinful behavior and example that mars our peace and safety - those still of the world, being carnal, and those who infiltrate the people of God and disturb their godliness and righteous sensibilities with wrong and wicked ways. Where the power of truth subsides immorality attains dominion and popular support. Irrationality and depravity prevails, as in our generation - a new “era of the judges” as recounted between the books Joshua and Ruth.

6. I do not trust my bow, my sword, does not bring me victory; Human expertise and endeavor do not overcome the forces and influences of moral evil and doctrinal error. What ever our equipage we cannot boast about or rely on “our bow” the responses we fire in the field of battle, or “our sword”; of hand to hand conflict. Apologetics and polemics are useless without the prompting and help of the Lord, for they are temptations to a self-congratulatory frame of mind. “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground (1 Samuel 3:19). Defenders and proponents of the faith need the same upholding and accurate aim of the Speaker of all truth. Dealing with today’s situation we all of us need great and special grace in our speech concerning God and his Gospel. No showing off! (lairizing, Aust)

7. But you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. This is the antithesis to human self-confidence in the struggles of the faith, doctrinal and practical. Humility is the approach. God will defend himself through the self-offering of his people and their utter dependence upon the Lord: “Do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12: 11-12). This encouragement does not, of course, obviate the task of preparation where possible; it affects delivery, as with Samuel).

8. In God we make our boast all day long, and will praise your name forever. The psalmist is keenly aware that in all things, but especially in any form of conflict, that he must totally place his confidence in God. He is a man of godly, holy, trusting heart. He affirms that God is reliable. But the covenant relation involves two parties - Yahweh and Israel. The covenant arrangement entails blessing and penalty. It requires joint faithfulness. Infidelity toward God cannot be overlooked by a good and just God. Leniency from God may provide recall to himself but initial correction or chastening is necessary to intelligent conviction of wrongdoing and offense, and beyond this, to deliberate repentance; education and re-entry to favor.

9. But now you have rejected us and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies. Israel wantonly forfeited the favor and fighting strength of God. The faithful psalmist laments the decadence of his nation. We are Israel, believing Jews and Gentiles together. You might say that Anglicanism is one of the tribes. Have we departed so very far from the Lord (Article 9) that he has withdrawn from us?

Will there ever be a whole-hearted return to our rootedness in truth and the loyalty to Scripture? Will our Augustinian tradition once again prevail as grounded in Paul, the apostles and prophets? Will a remnant be raised up to hold the fort. The Church “is a Guardian of Holy Scripture” (Article 20).

RJS

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINIY 2021

Collect
Merciful Lord, Grant, we humbly pray, to your faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve you with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SACRED SCRIPTURE
Genesis 32 : 22 - 29

The Wounded Wrestler

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the brook Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him.

Alone: It was a night of acute fear for Jacob, for he was about to encounter his aggrieved brother Esau whom he had swindled of his birthright and blessing in sly action of meanest deceit (Genesis 27). Would Esau wish to wreak revenge on the morrow when the estranged brothers accosted each other? Darkness and aloneness, filled with mental unease, can be frightfully chilling. The imagination can work overtime creating ice-cold dread and exaggerating an ominous sense of danger. Jacob was intensely nervous. 

A man wrestled with him: At what point in the lonely night the aggressor sprang upon Jacob we do not know, but it was a sudden and frightening attack, and a gruelling and intense struggle endured until daybreak. An unknown assailant seized upon Jacob, and together they grabbed at and gripped each other, engaging in various holds and hand to hand tactics, applying many painful maneuvers, and perhaps blows, to the other’s body, grappling both offensively and defensively. The tussle was vigorous and exhausting. Muscle power and breath must have been reduced to a very low ebb as dawn began to lighten the sky.

Let me go: The mystery man of the night assault asks for cessation of the struggle. He commenced combat and now he concludes it. His purpose has been fulfilled.

I will not let you go: Jacob senses that he has been grappling with God. He petitions an urgent blessing. The ongoing conflict is worth it, if it yields a needed blessing. He must hold on strenuously until the Lord bestows his favor, for the wrestling is an objective event that reflects his turmoil within - “Will God help me?” Jacob must persevere in the obtainment of divine aid.

What is your name?: In this enquiry Jacob is starkly confronted with his sinful, undeserving nature; that of a swindler, a cheat, a crafty “go-getter” of no moral integrity. From the very womb, clutching at Esau’s ankles, during the birth of Rachel’s twin boys, Jacob was the consummate grabber of anything throughout life that suited him and was to his personal advantage, no matter how it affected others.

“Your name will no longer be Jacob”: This is a statement of divine authority and sovereign (electing) intent. The God-man gives Jacob another name. However, we see that his family and biblical history still call him Jacob. The real point is not the mere changing of his name, but the transformation of the old Jacob’s former character. He will no longer think and act in the nature of the old Jacob, but in the ways of a new creature, born from above, namely Israel who has contended for mercy with the Lord, and passed through a profound transaction with the Lord personally; that is conviction of sin and fresh desire for mercy.

Tell me your name: God in his majestic supremacy will not disclose his name to Jacob at this juncture in divine revelation. He is high above all obligation to man. The fierce struggle in deliverance and prayer does not render us in any way familiar (chummy) with God, or give us the slightest cause for a sense of control over him, he being at our bidding, or, as the pagans believed, we wielding magical mastery over the Deity via spells and incantations. Whatever God does is in accord with his absolute, incontestable sovereignty.

If he calls us to an encounter with him through prayer that is sweet and comforting, or through struggle that is long term and taxing, he is always the sovereign initiator, actor, and benefactor in the matter of our contending with him and the petitions directed humbly toward him.

Presumption as to entitlement of access to God, or any self-serving advantage from him in our own right of claim is utterly forbidden and impossible of success. Humanity deserves no good thing from God. The exercise of his goodness is a matter of divine prerogative and determination alone. The disclosure of the divine name to us is an unearned, unmerited privilege - YAHWEH, Old Testament, or JESUS, New Testament. His personal names are the key to his intimate fellowship and favor, disclosed as a gesture of divine humility and fondest love. The Lord who is Light when he deigns to shine is Mystery also, hidden when he chooses.

Jacob and Ourselves: We, too, are called to be wrestlers with God. Whether it may be through times of particular ordeal, or simple regularity in communion and prayer, God gives us clues for our approach to him, and arguments for our requests. Scripture is the handbook for the method of engagement with the Lord and the language of discourse with God. The Bible blesses us with sufficient knowledge of the mind of the Lord that imparts a reverent intimacy with him. 

As with Jacob, we are encouraged to maintain a degree of cautious yet confident persistence with him, knowing that he knows best and will persevere in that which is best for us. He may “make haste” or require us to wait. But he will not ignore the concerns of his children. These may be caused to abate or solicit his intervention. When we come to our Jabbok, may the Lord be our Rock!

RJS

TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2021

Collect
Almighty and most merciful God, keep us by your bountiful goodness, we pray you, from all things that may hurt us, so that we always be ready both in body and soul cheerfully to accomplish whatever you would have us do; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


The Word of God

Matthew 22: 8-10
Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Luke 14: 22 - 23
“Sir,” the servant said, "what you have ordered has been done, but there is still room." Then the master told his servant, "Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full."


THE INDISCRIMINATE INVITATION

“God invites all men to himself, without a single exception . . . As no man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open to all men; neither is there any other thing which keeps us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief.”
John Calvin.

How explicit is the free offer of the gospel enunciated by the two excerpts from the compared versions of the parable of the great banquet. The heavenly invitation is extended emphatically, boldly, vividly from the lips of the Savior himself.

There is a universal, wide-open appeal to all persons to heed and receive the gospel promise. How strong this appeal is in the message spoken by the Lord Jesus. It is to be conveyed where ever there are people. Not simply special, polite, important and privileged places, or convenient places, but very definitely the streets, roads, out of the way lanes and byways where “all sorts” mingling in daily routines and business are to be found - not just the respectable, but the lowly who walk the thoroughfares and pathways also, and where the unacceptable loiter - from the Strand to Skid Row - God equips his servants suitably. The Church, in the breadth of its membership, receives this commission, and possesses divinely bestowed skills in the many who constitute the People of God. It is not Christians who should discriminate: make them all come in, both good and bad. The goal is to make Master’s house full and as day follows day “still there is room”.

The required wedding garment is provided by the host. The only barrier to entering is personal unbelief, the sense that I do not require the garb of grace and the robe of repentance. Sinners themselves consign themselves to final shame and exclusion from God. We ask ourselves, for how long shall the invitation be current?

RJS

The Collect for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity 

Lord God, Let your continual pity cleanse and defend your Church, we humbly pray, and because it cannot continue in safety without your aid, always preserve and protect it by your help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

HOLY SCRIPTURE

1 Kings 17 : 17 - end
After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and he carried him up to the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the woman with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said. “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

Luke 7 : 11 - 17
Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.


SEE, YOUR SON LIVES

Two widows separated by the centuries and very different domestic circumstances lose their sons to premature death and then have them miraculously restored to life by divine power.

The widow at Zarephath lived in poverty-stricken conditions so dire that both she and her son were on the verge of starvation when Elijah, at the bidding of the Lord, became her unexpected and long term guest, who through the word of the Lord guaranteed a daily supply of flour and oil from jar and jug for as long as necessary. Together prophet and parent witnessed and experienced the faithful and plenteous provision of God whose promises do not fail.

The widow of Nain, whose domestic circumstances are not disclosed, lived in a town that according to accurate translation could justly be called “Pleasant-ville”, which suggests a village of polite community outlook and pleasing prospect over the surrounding countryside. The grieving mother, unlike the poor lady of Elijah’s knowledge, seemed to have been supported by a great many of Nain’s residents who seemed as though they would have exercised some care over her in her lonely future.

Both mothers were torn by loss. The first suspected the punitive action of the Lord, the second attracted the compassion of the Savior in a situation of tender- hearted sorrow. The widow of Zarephath was sensitive to sin that continued to linger in her conscience and arouse, to some extent, the terror of the Lord. The widow of Nain is quickly consoled by the concern of Jesus and the recovery of her deceased son to an extension of life. One lady endures trauma at the first, and the second lady, at Messiah’s touch of the bier, meets with amazed joy at the rising of her son before her tear-filled eyes.

The administration of divine mercy differs in the accounts before us, but in essence sovereign grace emerges from the same heart of a compassionate Creator and affectionately embraces two deeply wounded souls, recreating their temporal existence, and addressing varying temperaments with a vivid understanding of the Lord’s huge power to vanquish the fearful foe of human death. Elijah, his ready action and fervent prayer prove instrumental in the miracle at Zarephath, and Jesus is personally present at the sign performed at Nain.

Death invades all lives, ranks and residences, rich and poor, with absolute certainty, and no region or room can shut it out and resist its gloom. Neither penury nor pleasant places can resist the inevitable intrusion of the “grim reaper” who stalks, and eventually tracks us down over the course of our sin. There is only one deliverance from, through and beyond the painful death due to our evil and arrogant breach with God, and that is the resurrection power of the Lord granting us birth from above before death, and a safe passage through death to life in the Kingdom where death is forbidden to enter.

These two women were granted infallible faith in God’s triumph over death and his power to reverse it. It is the unique ability of the Lord of Life and the strong consolation of they who trust him. Prophet and Messiah have, respectively, announced and demonstrated the fact of risen life for the people of God. And we have vital testimony throughout the record of Holy Scripture: a) “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” b) “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” This Visitor shows us the path of life.

From The Epistle For Today [Ephesians 3 : 13 - 21] vv20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.